President Obama's State of the Union speech was centered on the issue of making the American economy more fair. To that end, he announced as part of his plan that New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman will help lead a unit looking into the mortgage collapse.

It's a big victory for liberals and a sure sign that Obama is indeed keeping an eye on his base (the base that rallied around the Occupy Wall Street protests) as he heads into his re-election effort.

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It will be interesting to see how much Schneiderman's new job, which brings with it the potential to greatly increase his national profile, affects the dialogue at the top level of state politics in New York.

Governor Andrew Cuomo has said, in stump speeches, that there is no divide between rich and poor. And, lest we forget, he unofficially but unmistakably opposed Schneiderman's bid for attorney general during the primary, coming around only late in the game to support him in the general. Cuomo's concern, as a ran for governor as an anti-partisan centrist, was that Schneiderman was too liberal.

Some links:

State of the Union

Obama is "no more a man of audacious hope" but is "now a man of populist appeal." [Daily News]

"[H]is speech sounded like a page out of the Occupy Wall Street playbook." [New York Post]

The "Buffet Rule" gets a thumbs up from a progressive editorial page. [New York Times]

Obama "presented a somewhat modest list of initiatives he could enact through executive authority coupled with more ambitious proposals unlikely to advance in Congress." [Helene Cooper]

Rebutting the theme: "America is great not because it’s a team. America is great because it is a nation whose founding documents elevated the rights of the individual." [John Podhoretz]

Schneiderman

The New York State Attorney General will be chair of Obama's new Unit on Mortgage Origination and Securitization Abuses. "This is a big achievement and something the entire progressive advocacy community wanted," said an unnamed White House official. [Sam Stein]

"Romney's 13.9% tax rate is perfectly legal; that's the problem," said the Working Families Party, in an email. [Twitter]

Romney donated more to his church than he paid in taxes, note Stonewall Democrats. [Twitter]

Redistricting

LATFOR will propose creating a new State Senate district in Flushing that is 52 percent Asian and has no incumbent living there. Also, assemblymen Rory Lancman and David Weprin will see their districts cut in order to create an Asian Assembly district. [Ken Lovett]

An upstate Republican state senator, Hugh Farley, said the newly created 63rd senate seat near Albany "helps the capital region." [Joseph Spector]

'The Third Jihad'

"I recommended in February 2007 that Commissioner Kelly be interviewed," NYPD spokesman Paul Browne now acknowledges, contradicting earlier statements. Browne also said Kelly didn't know the documentary would be about radical Islam, something the film's creator denies. [Michael Powell]

Pensions

"In reality, there is no option" in Cuomo's plan to offer 401(k) defined benefits. [Mario Cilento]